Mike Smith (Illustrator)

Tag Archives: sketch

London to Singapore

Posting the sketchbook images from Beijing the other day made me realise it’s exactly four years since Caz and I made the trip from London to Singapore by train. We left on 17th September, arrived on 13th November, then spent 6 weeks in New Zealand. I thought it would be nice to post each page here on the same day four years later.

The text was intended just to jog my memory for writing it all up later, but of course I never did. Some of the drawings are truly awful but because I’m a completeness freak I’m going to scan them all.

Er, including the first one where the pencil got smudged into oblivion. No-one will ever know what we got up to in Minsk.

Travel diary, London-Singapore by train: Minsk and Moscow

Travel diary, London-Singapore by train: Moscow

More Telegraph Poles

Talking about messy telegraph poles at Dungeness made me think of these biro sketches I did in a Beijing back street about four years ago. Every time I see one I get an ache to draw it. I dread to think why.

Sketch: telegraph poles in Beijing street

What this reminds me of more than anything is the sound of people hacking and gobbing in the street.

Dungeness

Dungeness lighthouse painting

Pencil sketch of a house at Dungeness

Dungeness lighthouse and nuclear power station painting

While we were on the south coast I did some sketching at Dungeness. It’s got to be one of the best places in the UK to go with a pad and pencil. It’s got everything, including loads of messy telegraph poles, which I particularly love drawing.

Caz’s dad is responsible for the design of part of the nuclear power station, but I can’t remember which bit.

Hospital bed

Sketch of Caz recovering from tonsillitis.

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